Humbug (3 page)

I trailed off, registering his suddenly incredulous expression. He looked so affronted I half expected him to start shouting at me, but then he seemed to get control of himself, taking a deep breath and schooling his expression back to neutrality.

“Fine,” he gritted out. “I’ll find a space in our diaries to sit down and talk about any concerns you have after the Christmas holidays, but today, I need to leave at lunchtime. You needn’t worry—I won’t be completely offline. I’ll still be contactable by phone if something important comes up. You can just call or text me and I’ll—”

“Hang on,” I interrupted, glaring at him. That take-charge tone he was using riled me with its assumption of authority. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Let me be clear: the answer to your request is no. I expect you here till five thirty as usual—beyond that, if required. You know how it works here, Rob. We’re a client-focused firm, a service provider. We need to be available.”

Rob glared at me. “I’ve more than made the time up, and Emily’s always going on about our flexible working policy—”

Emily, our HR Manager in Manchester, was a fucking liability in my opinion.

“It’s flexible working
by arrangement
,” I snapped. “Not just whenever you like because you happen to feel like doing a bit of late Christmas shopping.”

His face grew red. “Christ, you really are a monumental dick, Quin!”

That was so unexpected that I just stood there and gaped. Rob was the most easy-going guy I’d ever met. I’d never heard him so much as raise his voice before. The only sign he usually gave of being pissed off was when he retreated into rigid formality.

“You have literally
no
idea why I’m asking to leave early,” he went on angrily, his dark eyes flashing with sudden temper. “What’s more you clearly don’t give a
shit
that I worked at home till after midnight last night, then came in at the crack of dawn to make up the time in advance—twice over as it happens. You just say no, without even asking why I need the time off.”

I ignored the faint pang of guilt his angry words invoked, instead saying loftily, “That’s not the point. The point is that you can’t just land this on me without any notice. There’s hardly anyone in today. What if we’re asked to pick up a new project urgently? I need you here, Rob.”

“No, you don’t! You
don’t
need me. You don’t even need that fucking billing spreadsheet, although you pretended to, just so you could hold it over my head. It’s the fucking twenty-third of December. Our biggest project of the last year has ended, and everything else is in hand. No one will need anything for the next few days because it’s fucking
Christmas
. And if they do need something, all you need to do is call me and
I will come back!
”

For several long moments, we both just stood there, staring at each other. He was breathing heavily and I felt like a stunned rabbit, as it gradually dawned on me that I hadn’t handled this at all well and now needed a face-saving way out of my managerial fuckup.

I was desperate enough to welcome any kind of distraction, so when the security door opened and someone spoke my name, I gratefully turned away.

I took me several moments to recognise the woman facing me.

“Marley?”

I’d known Marley Jacob for almost six years, but without the suit, the makeup, the heels, and the glossy, styled hair she looked unfamiliar. The woman standing in front of me was wearing
jeans—
I’d’ve put money on Marley not even owning a pair of jeans—and her usually perfectly made-up face was pale and blotchy from crying.

Clearly something was very wrong—and I had no idea what to say or do. I gaped at her, standing there, tearful and lost looking.

Luckily Rob seemed to have more common sense than me when it came to this sort of thing. He stepped towards her, saying, “Marley, what’s wrong?”

“My brother died last night,” she whispered. Then she began to sob.

“O
h God, I’m so sorry,” Rob said. He went to her, opening his arms and she stumbled into his embrace, still sobbing. I watched, amazed. Rob seemed so at ease offering comfort to Marley. He wrapped his big, solid arms round her without hesitation and she leaned into him, trusting his strength.

I glanced at Brian who sat frozen at his desk. Carefully, as though trying to avoid making the slightest sound, he removed his headphones and set them down before tentatively pushing his chair back and standing up. He tiptoed closer, coming to stand beside me, the two of us hovering silently, uselessly, as Rob comforted Marley.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t even known Marley had a brother. We didn’t really talk about stuff like that.

I heard the security door swishing open again and looked round to see Holly walking in, my long-awaited latte in her hand. She wouldn’t normally bring me my coffee—she knew perfectly well she wasn’t supposed to leave reception unattended. She’d plainly popped through to find out what all the drama was about.

I glared at her as I took the coffee from her but she didn’t seem to notice. She was looking at Brian and whispering, “Is she all right?”

“Hadn’t you better get back to reception?” I bit out in a low, tight voice.

“Her brother died,” Brian murmured. “Last night apparently.”

Holly looked shocked. “Oh, that’s awful,” she whispered back. “And at Christmas too.”

She fell into silence beside us, and for a moment we all just stood there, watching as Rob dealt with Marley.

It felt uncomfortably voyeuristic.

“Perhaps we should get back to work,” I said in a low voice, When they both sent me a horrified look, I flushed. “Well, we’re not helping her by just standing here staring,” I hissed, annoyed by their reaction, but I didn’t move.

Thankfully, Marley’s sobs seemed to be diminishing now. Once she was hiccoughing her way back to normality, she extricated herself from Rob’s arms, sending him a tremulous smile.

“Thanks,” she croaked. “And sorry. I didn’t mean to cry all over you. I just thought I’d come in and”—she stopped, swallowing—“I suppose I had some idea about making sure everything was okay at work before I head home to Leicester.” That seemed to make her feel like crying again—her face crumpled, but she angrily dashed the tears away, adding in a vicious tone. “What a pathetic workaholic.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Rob said. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. But the office is the last place you should be right now.”

“Rob’s right,” Holly interjected. “And you shouldn’t be alone. Do you have a friend you could call?” She paused.” If not, I could come with you and sit with you for a while?” She sent a worried look in my direction then, as though she thought I might forbid it.

Offended, I smiled tightly and said, “That sounds like a good idea, Holly.”

Marley shook her head though. “Andy’s going to take me back to Leicester.”

“Andy?” I parroted, the surprise in my voice obvious. “Your ex?”

I didn’t know for certain what had caused their split last year, but Marley’s job was part of it. I’d heard her arguing with him on the phone regularly, usually when she’d just cancelled their plans at the last minute so she could work late.

“Yeah,” she whispered and her expression betrayed her bewilderment. “He’s been amazing. When I called him last night, he just…dropped everything. He was supposed to be going to Devon for this massive family Christmas but instead he’s taking me back to Mum’s and staying for the funeral.”

“So what are you doing here?” Holly asked gently.

Marley sighed. “I don’t know. I suppose I thought I’d check in before leaving town.” She gave a harsh laugh. “I didn’t think I’d start crying.”

There was a brief silence.

I cleared my throat. “Well, you don’t need to worry about work. Everything’s under control on that front.” I sent an awkward glance Rob’s way and added, “Project Charlie’s finished and nothing else important is happening right now. We should be quiet till the New Year.”

Rob didn’t return my look, but his jaw tightened and I knew he was angry.

“Thanks,” Marley said. “I appreciate it.”

She turned to walk away from us then, starting towards the door, but after just a couple of steps, she stopped and when she turned back to face us, her expression was thoughtful.

“You know what?” she said. “None of you need to be here. Why don’t you go home?”

I frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”

She was looking at all of us, her gaze moving between me, Rob, Brian and Holly.

“We’ll shut the office early for Christmas. You can spend the extra time with your families and friends.”

Christ. I could just imagine what head office would make of that.

I jumped in quickly, before any of the others could speak. “That’s not necessary. We close at lunchtime tomorrow anyway—we can all hack another day and a half till the office closes.” I looked at the others, willing them to agree. “Right, guys?”

Holly pressed her lips together in an annoyed way and Brian looked like a kicked puppy. Rob glared at me, then said through gritted teeth, “As you know, I’ve already asked for the rest of today off.”

I opened my mouth to respond to that but Marley spoke over me.

“That’s fine, Rob,” she said. “Take whatever time you need.”

She turned her attention back to me then and said crisply, “Since Project Charlie’s all wrapped up, I’m authorising closing for the holidays today instead of tomorrow. It won’t make any difference on the work front, and if the board are pissed off about it, they can take it out of my profit share. Everyone’s worked a ton of extra hours these last few months so it shouldn’t make any difference to your bonuses.”

“But what about the billing for Charlie?” I protested. “Or what if something urgent comes in? Somebody needs to be here to take the call.”

Marley shrugged, unconcerned. “Finance won’t process any invoice requests till January now, so there’s no point worrying about billing. As for urgent stuff coming in, trust me, nothing new is going to come in before next year now.”

Beside me, Rob muttered, “I told him that already.”

I sent him a filthy look before turning my attention back to Marley. “I was going to give Phil a call. See if he needs assistance on the new Singapore project—”

She gave a humourless laugh at that. “What, so he can dump his crap on you and swan off for Christmas while you do his dirty work? Jesus, Quin, I know you want to be promoted but don’t look desperate. Guys like Phil can smell it.”

I bristled. “You’re the one who told me that successful people create their own opportunities! Besides, Phil wouldn’t dump on—”

“Oh, yes, he would,” she scoffed. “He’d be delighted to find someone mug enough to take on his shit so he can have a nice relaxing Christmas.” She narrowed her eyes at me, the way she always did when she got serious about something. “Besides, just ’cause you don’t care about working an extra day and a half doesn’t mean the rest of these guys have to grin and bear it too.”

I felt myself colour, humiliated. It’d been years since Marley had given me a dressing down in front of other people and it rankled. It especially rankled that Rob was witnessing my authority being so thoroughly countermanded after the argument we’d just had.

“Well, that’s pretty rich coming from you,” I said. “How many holidays have I worked through because you said you needed me in the office? Remember the France trip I cancelled when you said I
had
to be on that big job in Newcastle? Ben didn’t speak to me for a week after that.” I shook my head, disbelieving. “And I never once complained when you said ‘That’s the job, Quin. If the client needs us, we have to suck it up.’”

“Well, you
should’ve
complained,” she snapped back. “Do you want end up like me?” She gestured at herself disgustedly, her eyes glimmering with sudden tears. “I’ve had nothing in my life but work for the last twenty-five years. Andy loved me, and I threw him away because I wasn’t prepared to put him before the job. As for my brother, the next time I see him, he’ll be in a casket. I’ll never speak to him again. He’s
gone
. I hadn’t seen him for two years and I fucking regret that, now.” She blinked and the tears glittering in her eyes fell to her pale cheeks.

Instantly, I felt awful. How could I have blown up at her like that? Jesus, her brother had just
died.

“Marley—” I began, then broke off, not knowing what else to say.

“Last night, all I could think about was
time
,” she continued, dashing her tears away with an impatient hand. “That’s all we have to give each other. Our time, here on earth. And now that I’m looking back, over the last twenty-five years, I realise how much of it I’ve wasted.”

I swallowed, hard. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that stuff about holidays.”

She shook her head. “But I
did
make you work through your holidays, and it was a shitty thing to do. I’m sorry, Quin.”

“It’s okay, I—”

“No,” she interrupted. “It’s not. So, give me your phone.”

I stared at her puzzled. “What?”

“Give me your phone,” she repeated more firmly.

Puzzled, I drew it out of my pocket and placed in her outstretched hand. She immediately opened up the bag she had over her shoulder and dropped it inside.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I said, alarmed.

She ignored me, turning her attention to Holly. “Go and close up reception, then you can log off and head home if you like.” She glanced at Rob. “You too, Rob.”

“Okay,” he said carefully. “If you’re sure?”

“Marley, listen—” I began, stepping forward.

She didn’t even look at me, her attention still on Rob. “I’m sure,” she said. She was all business now, back to her old self, rapping out instructions. She turned to Brian.

“Brian, get on the phone to Ed’s PA in London. Tell them we’ve got nothing critical going on and I’ve sent everyone home for Christmas early. Then do a follow-up email in my name to the partners on the board confirming the details. Phones can go on divert to the London PAs. Once you’re done, you can head off too.”

Brian nodded and headed for his desk.